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I've read a bunch on here and elsewhere and not sure at the end of it I'm much wiser... wondering has anyone tried any of the readily available LED conversions for our headlights? First time I drove my car at night through urban construction and then on country roads was a bit of a shocker, felt very unsafe.
I see stock-ish looking units (although the fronts are more flat) that is where I am leaning
but the idea of halos is kind of interesting as the family currently drives three different BMWs all of which have double round lights with halos. But they detract from the look of the car I think maybe? especially the second one..
Have you considered using a good quality (name brand) halogen setup?
That's what I use with great results and for me, no modifications necessary.
Of course, if you're the type of person that likes to change multiple items from stock, halogen may not be an option (for you). I'm not sure what the regulations are in Canada for changing light types...
The Holley LED lights are what I was hoping to use in my wagon as they are supposed to work without any modification but the price is hard to justify at the moment. Please let us know if you end up trying the ones you posted above.
6t5vair --- This topic comes up every so often. As spyderman said the Holley LED headlights are an option, but pricey. The Holley units are DOT approved and made/designed by a company with a good reputation. You are paying for quality and a good light pattern and legal headlights that won't get you a ticket like some of the aftermarket lighting.
There are so many options, BUT few are DOT approved and many are Made in China with dubious quality. Light output ranges from about the same as a modern sealed beam headlight to dazzling brilliance that will strain even a 63Amp alternator, not to mention overloading the wiring.
LAWS --- Lighting regulation/laws are numerous starting with the Federal, then State, County, City --- good grief you can literally have headlights that are legal in one city, but ILLEGAL in the next city!! Even worse it is up to the local law enforcement to determine if your headlights are not legal (very subjective, but the brighter the headlights, the more likely you'll get pulled over - especially if the officer was "blinded" by your headlights due to too bright, mis-aimed, or driving with high beams on too close to oncoming traffic).
H4 bulb housings and lamps --- Popular aftermarket, but beware as there are two types (U.S. driving on right side of road, or India, Japan, U.K., Australia driving on left side of the road). Get the wrong one and you will blind oncoming traffic even on LO beam. Ignore the RHD or LHD labels. Go online and fine how the lens pattern for U.S. so you will know. The better H4 housing have a flat front lens. Some like the look, other do not. You can find curved front lens housing, but some produce a poor beam pattern. Octane make as set and they are O.K. BTW - plastic lens and reflectors tend to get "foggy" after a few years.
H4 bulbs - Halogen -- In he U.S. legal is 55/60 Watts maximum (no limit on brightness). BEWARE of "Brighter" halogen bulbs as only the HI beam is brighter and in the U.S. few use HI beam unless you live in an are with little traffic. Relays and upgraded wiring is recommended. You can use high output "off road" H4 bulbs, but they get HOT and require ceramic headlight connectors, 14 gauge (or larger) wiring, and on HI a quad setup can pull as much as 30Amps!!!! They are bright, too bright for street use and will probably get you a ticket.
H4 bulbs - LED -- Few have DOT ratings. Most are from China sold online by "Pop-up companies" and good luck with reliability. Until recently they were built using multi LED chips and the light patterns were AWFUL. Now some are being made with one small high intensity chip on each side of the heat sink and the the light pattern is better. There are two types of LED bulbs - those with cooling fans and those without fans. The ones with fans get complaints about being NOISY or they don't fit in the headlamp housing. The bulbs without fans tend to be lower power, yet about 10% brighter then the Halogen H4 bulbs. However most sold are higher output bulbs and advertised as 8 times brighter then standard headlamps. They are considerably brighter, but almost guaranteed to get you a fix-it ticket!!!
HALO daytime driving H4 housings. They look sharp, but a year ago I found most were listed as "OUT OF STOCK". I called two companies (they just sell imported stuff, not manufacturers) and one said they did not know when they would be back in stock. The other company was more honest and said "The failure rate was so high we lost money selling them so we stopped selling them".
Just what I've come across AND NOTE the LED bulb technology is still changing. In Europe two name brand companies recently started selling H4 LED bulbs that meet Euro standards and have good light patterns. Unfortunately they are not interested in spending the money to get them DOT approved.
With all the new car variation in headlamp design local law enforcement tends to ignore the lighting issue unless you are "blinding" on coming traffic or have colored lights that are illegal in many places. Even if you prove you have DOT headlights they can say they are not aimed correctly and give you a ticket.
Others can comment, but keep in mind the changes over the last few years, so old experiences may not longer apply.
Here is a tip --- I installed H4 lenses that fit either the HI/LO outer, or the HI inner lamp holders. I wire up the inner low beam to a switch to use as AUXILLARY driving/fog lights. IT IS ILLEGAL IN THE U.S. TO DRIVE WITH FOUR LOW BEAMS, but you can drive with only two low beams and multiple "AUXILLARY" driving lights as long as you DO NOT BLIND oncoming traffic. Auxillary lighting includes driving lights, fog lights, daytime running lights.
I have used these in my low beam positions on my 65 4 door as well as a 58 chevy truck and 68 Firebird. I am very happy with them in all instances. Can't beat the price.
May or may not be legal for you, but if you're registered as antique, or don't have inspection-Tennessee-then it won't matter.
They are not convex, but not overly obvious and the light color and beam patterns are a huge improvement for visibility.
lane66monza --- Yes it is NOT legal to replace incandescent bulbs with LED in the U.S.A. However IF the housing was designed for LED bulbs they are legal with DOT certification. Also note the law/regulations state that installing a LED headlamp housing from one model of vehicle to a different model is illegal due to possible aiming issues.
The Holley LED headlights page says "Compliant - No-glare beam pattern meets or exceeds SAE and DOT Requirements" That is an ambiguous statement claiming they meet or exceed DOT requirements, but is not proof!!!! Automakers require proof/certification that a product meets or exceeds the DOT requirements. A LOT of paperwork
Bottom line --- as I stated previously, telling a law enforcement officer your lights are DOT approved means little if the officer determines the lights are blinding oncoming traffic.
When the High Intensity Discharge headlights first arrived they were DOT approved, but after the NHTSA received a huge number of complaints from drivers about being blinded by them the DOT started to re-think regulations. Before they acted HID lights were superseded by the new LED headlights and the understaffed DOT is still behind the curve. Meanwhile in Europe much brighter headlights have been approved that automatically self level (as car goes over bumps or approaches cars on lower surfaces) called "Adaptive Lighting" that won't blind oncoming drivers. The DOT here is still "evaluating" the systems so cars designed in Europe get inferior lighting when sold in the U.S.A.
Up here in Canada they seem to have completely lost the thread on what's too bright or what's compliant, nobody ever gets ticketed for anything. So, as long as I'm not prompting other drivers to flash me, I'm good.
I would definitely like to upgrade both low and high beams with matching style and light color, not sure I'm ready to fork out for the Holley route though. So for now I'm not sure what to do.
Noting also some of these aftermarket setups have DRL options, what's the usual method to add DRL to our cars in terms of wiring?
1965 Corvair Monza Coupe 4spd
Inherited 32-year project, finally rolling.
6T5VAIR wrote: ↑Tue Aug 27, 2024 7:58 am
Up here in Canada they seem to have completely lost the thread on what's too bright or what's compliant, nobody ever gets ticketed for anything. So, as long as I'm not prompting other drivers to flash me, I'm good.
I would definitely like to upgrade both low and high beams with matching style and light color, not sure I'm ready to fork out for the Holley route though. So for now I'm not sure what to do.
Noting also some of these aftermarket setups have DRL options, what's the usual method to add DRL to our cars in terms of wiring?
Same in the U.S.A. Enforcement is basically up to what the officer determines is too bright, broken, or wrong color - very subjective. It is no secret officers DO NOT LIKE TO pull folks over at night now. Too many crazies with guns! Unless you are driving with very bright lights, you will probably have no issues.
Finally some of the newer H4 LED bulbs have a better pattern, but most are high output offroad bulbs that are too bright for street use!!! I just got a miserly 22 Watt (no fan in bulb housing) H4 LED bulb and it is about 10 - 20% brighter (subjective viewing by me) then my Halogen H4 bulbs!! Not enough to attract unwanted attention, but the added brightness is welcome for my old eyes. Keep in mind many H4 LED bulbs (off road rated) are 50 or more Watts and when they say EIGHT TIMES BRIGHTER than halogen, it is not much of an exaggeration and they will defiantly get you a ticket for blinding drivers if used on public streets!!! H4 LED bulb light patterns are better with the use of small LED chips, but it is still the "buyer beware". Lots of questionable "Made in China" bulbs on the market.
DRL's headlamp housing. I think I commented before, but when I looked into them (led ring on round housing) reviews were bad. They were not reliable and failing early. One company I called said they had suspended sales of the DRL headlights because so many failed during warranty.
I would think you would need to run a separate circuit and switch if you did not want to have them tied in with the park and tail lights for day driving.
I have a set of LED headlamps that I want to put into our van. What I am finding is the ones with the fan will not fit into the early housing. I will have to go look at the brand. The housings also are not a bolt in, the bucket where they lock in needs to be modified for the tabs so the light sits straight.
What I have is not an easy fit, can I make it work? Yes. The truck has a clearance issue with the housing where the car does not, if you modify the housing. I have a way to actually press the round back of the housing to lengthen it, they put a convenient Fold right there and that will unroll if you block the housing with the correct size ring!
Ken Hand
248 613 8586 vairmech@aol.com
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If adaptive lighting is what is currently on Toyota trucks and other vehicles, NO THANKS! Here in Virginia once outside of any "city limits" there are no street lights, and everybody seems to drive with their brights on. So one night we're driving back from an out of town dinner on a long dark road, and the driver of the Toyota truck right behind me is constantly switching between high and low beams, because oncoming traffic is seen by the sensor, but pays ZERO attention to the car right in front of it, it's annoying beyond belief, especially if your eyes are sensitive to bright light. A friend has a new EV Lexus with this lighting, and apparently if you use your high beams, the system is in control, not the driver. There's even semis now using LED's that probably should be illegal, I'm almost to the point of not driving at night, it gets pretty dangerous on the curves/hills around here.
I recently got new glasses, and the nice lady that's worked in the lens grinding field for her entire career told me how much she loves this adaptive lighting, completely ignoring the fact that it blinds the person she's tailgating.
But I would like something better than the halogens I have on my Vair now.
vairmech wrote: ↑Wed Aug 28, 2024 4:53 am
I have a set of LED headlamps that I want to put into our van. What I am finding is the ones with the fan will not fit into the early housing. I will have to go look at the brand. The housings also are not a bolt in, the bucket where they lock in needs to be modified for the tabs so the light sits straight.
What I have is not an easy fit, can I make it work? Yes. The truck has a clearance issue with the housing where the car does not, if you modify the housing. I have a way to actually press the round back of the housing to lengthen it, they put a convenient Fold right there and that will unroll if you block the housing with the correct size ring!
Ken - The LED bulbs with fans don't fit many cars as they are BIG and the other complaint I read is they are NOISY!. No engine up front in a Corvair to mask the noise!!
The 22 Watt H4 led bulbs do not use a fan AND they don't protruded any farther from the housing than a H4 Halogen bulb - UNFORTUNATELY the H4 housing won't fit in an EM headlamp assembly unless you cut away some metal.
Someone I knew liked the Auxito bulbs so I ordered a pair to test. Bench testing shows the pattern is like the Halogen high output H4 bulb , but a little brighter. Fits fine in LM. I HAVE NOT DONE a dark road light pattern test yet!!! The H4 Halogen are 55/60 Watt and the Auxito H4 is 22/22 Watt (you don't need relays). Auxito calls these lower powered LED bulbs "H4 Motorcycle" (lower wattage system), but the are the same light pattern as for a car/truck. If you have H4 housings you might try one - not expensive! Will they hold up - who knows as there is so much inferior lighting out of China. Anyway see ---- https://www.auxito.com/collections/moto ... 0698556509
They sell on ebay or Amazon, sometimes for less. Worth a look, time will tell if they hold up.
zarfnober wrote: ↑Wed Aug 28, 2024 9:08 am
If adaptive lighting is what is currently on Toyota trucks and other vehicles, NO THANKS! Here in Virginia once outside of any "city limits" there are no street lights, and everybody seems to drive with their brights on. So one night we're driving back from an out of town dinner on a long dark road, and the driver of the Toyota truck right behind me is constantly switching between high and low beams, because oncoming traffic is seen by the sensor, but pays ZERO attention to the car right in front of it, it's annoying beyond belief, especially if your eyes are sensitive to bright light. A friend has a new EV Lexus with this lighting, and apparently if you use your high beams, the system is in control, not the driver. There's even semis now using LED's that probably should be illegal, I'm almost to the point of not driving at night, it gets pretty dangerous on the curves/hills around here.
I recently got new glasses, and the nice lady that's worked in the lens grinding field for her entire career told me how much she loves this adaptive lighting, completely ignoring the fact that it blinds the person she's tailgating.
But I would like something better than the halogens I have on my Vair now.
The last I read --- the NHTSA issued proposed regulations in 2022 to allow adaptive lighting, BUT NOT THE SAME AS OTHER COUNTRIES due to a reduced level of brightness. So NO the adaptive lighting here will not be the same as used in other countries, so the U.S.A adaptive lighting will be unique. Some 2024 vehicles have adaptive lighting.
The FEDS are making an attempt to deal with new LED lighting after the HID headlights "blinding drivers" fiasco. Fact is the FEDS are way behind - underfunded and understaffed. Like the FAA, they often let the manufactures suggest what to do --- and we all know how well that worked at BOEING!!!!
I just bought a pair of Holley retobrights for my wagon. They have seconds for sale on eBay 50% off. This is still over two hundred dollars for a pair of lights but I am hopeful that it will bee a nice upgrade and long term be less load on the system as am still working toward AC in the car and will need to run some e-fans upfront. They are supposed to be here by the end of the week and I will report how they fit, perform and what makes them seconds.
Sadly the "Trade War" will put a stop to inexpensive LED bulbs coming in from China. Importers now have to pay a 104% tariff and they have to gamble folks will pay the increase. With all the "experts" warning that a recession is coming I doubt many will take the risk.
Just me, but I'll be ordering some spares this week.
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